Long squad

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The Lange Riege in the district of Eilpe in the city of Hagen , in the southern Ruhr area , represents a unique historical building ensemble that is considered to be the “oldest workers' settlement in Westphalia ”.

Long squad in Hagen-Eilpe

After the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), some Solingen blade smiths left their home in the Bergisches Land in 1661 . On May 1, 1661, they signed a contract with the Great Elector Margrave Friedrich Wilhelm zu Brandenburg in which they assured against the privilege of manufacturing sword and epee blades in Prussia to settle on its territory.

According to a contract dated January 24, 1664, the families of the blade forge in Eilpe received apartments and workshops that the elector had built at his expense. Because of the way the houses were built, which were lined up wall to wall in a long row along the Selbeck stream , the name "Lange Riege" (= long row) became popular. With the support of the elector, the blade smiths built a school for their children at the beginning of the street around 1665.

In the heyday of their craft, the blade smiths with their goods made here helped Eilpe to achieve European fame far beyond Brandenburg . The successful work and the great productivity of this Eilper blade forge also had a positive effect on the further development and development of Hagen (1746).

The decline of the blade smiths in Eilpe began after the years from 1806 to 1813. The lack of government contracts and the strong competition from the Bergisches Land made the Eilpern difficult to create. In 1814, 577,500 knives worth 385,000 thalers were manufactured and sold, but the decline could not be stopped. Around 1824, 29 foremen and 71 workers were still working on 32 furnaces. They still produced 335,000 knives worth 160,000 thalers. In 1850 there were 55 blade smithies in Eilpe, which were located on the Eilper Bach.

In the Bergisches Land, the long-established blacksmiths refined their technology and delivered increasingly high-quality, better-quality goods. The fine blades from Solingen are known worldwide to this day. The master blacksmiths in Eilper could no longer keep up with this progress. Little by little, the 300-year-old cutlery trade was given up in Eilpe. On February 18, 1899, the last cutlery was deleted from the cadastre of the trade association.

The "Lange Riege" in its original form has largely been preserved to this day and is one of the monuments of Westphalian industrial culture. The settlement serves as an anchor point on the Route of Industrial Culture .

Web links

Commons : Lange Riege  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 47 "  N , 7 ° 29 ′ 38"  E